Republican Salt Lake County Council member Dave Alvord won’t seek another term, he announced late Thursday.
Alvord instead will be throwing his support behind fellow Republican Carlos Moreno, who has officially filed to run for the District 2 seat that covers the west side of Salt Lake County stretching from Magna, south through West Valley City and into South Jordan and Herriman.
“It is with bittersweet emotion that I announce that I will not be seeking a second term,” Alvord wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “but will give my full support to this good man.”
The first-term District 2 council member and former South Jordan mayor wrote that as he reflected on what to do about the next four years, Moreno, a West Jordan resident, kept coming to mind.
“When considering the timing of all of this, I was persuaded to step aside and put my full support behind Carlos,” he wrote. “He has the right spirit to bring new ideas to the west side that are unique to him.”
Moreno, Alvord wrote, represents a movement of more Hispanic Americans siding with the Republican Party — a movement he said he embraces.
Alvord’s announcement came a day after GOP state Sen. Daniel Thatcher announced he would seek the District 2 seat. Thatcher, who has represented the west side of Salt Lake County in the Senate since 2010, said he wants to focus on local issues that the Legislature often ignores.
The sitting council member has made waves on the partisan County Council.
Last month, he was the sole council member to vote for an ordinance that would restrict transgender patrons’ use of county recreation facility locker rooms.
In 2022, he faced a social media pile-on for comments he made suggesting fetuses are not part of a mother’s body because the placenta and umbilical cord are not directly connected to a woman. Despite that statement being false, Alvord stood by his comments.
In addition to Moreno and Thatcher, Democrat Katie Olson has filed to run for the District 2 seat. The candidate filing period ends Monday.
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